Vents MagaZine Music and Entertainment Magazine
Related Articles
Elyezer Shkedy’s new book is Who the F*ck is Michael!: An Israeli Air Force Chief’s Uncompromising Code for Achieving Greatness. Shkedy writes with this extraordinary matter-of-factness, expertly coupled with this outstanding emotional candor. He adds this uncompromising warmth to the text, while outlining stories sometimes rife with earth-shattering suspense. After all, the guy served in the IDF! There’s also this incredible sense of analogy Shkedy adds to the prose. It’s not easy to work this in to an experience in literal form many people outside of Israel cannot relate to.
The idea of a nationwide draft once you turn eighteen brings forth a solemn reminder of the hurdles of adulthood, of extraordinary responsibility bestowed to the individual. In some ways, it’s a sobering rite of passage for those without the luxury of growing up in a country at war. In other ways, however, it’s something if communicated efficiently that serves as a brilliant universal reminder that said responsibilities don’t cease just because of comfort versus non. Shkedy is able to use his singular experience in the Israeli air force to impart these kinds of life lessons efficiently. He’s able to divert to it not as a reminder of some sort of experiential superiority, but rather as a reminder to keep score on what really matters in life.
AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/Who-Michael-Uncompromising-Achieving-Greatness/dp/1632281155
An expert example of this is a passage from the beginning of the book, where Shkedy recalls a dream of getting a pair of Adidas Roms.“I dreamed of getting a pair of Adidas Roms, the white leather-and-suede sneakers (or as they were called in those days, ‘sports shoes’) with three blue stripes on the side,” he writes. “In the 60s, they were the height of fashion. Most of my close friends at elementary school, in the Ramatayim neighborhood of what is now Hod Hasharon, wore their imported Roms with pride, while I was stuck with the black mid-tops made of canvas and with a very thin rubber sole, produced locally by Hamegaper.
One day, my mother told me that she was taking me to
buy sneakers. I said to myself: This is it; it’s finally happening. Mom probably wants to buy me the Adidas Roms I’m always fantasizing about. We went to the shoe store, and of course, my mother bought me…a fresh pair of Hamegapers. New sneakers, but Hamegapers. Mom immediately noticed my crestfallen look. ‘What’s wrong?’ she asked. I didn’t reply. She repeated the question, ‘What’s wrong? What’s wrong?’ I told her, ‘Never mind. It doesn’t matter.’ ‘Are you disappointed?’ I hesitated for a moment and then said, ‘Yes.’ I told her how much I wanted a pair of Adidas Roms, just like all of my friends.
Then Mom asked me, ‘Tell me, who’s the fastest runner in the whole class?’ I responded, ‘I am.’ Mom said, ‘That’s what really matters. What’s important is what you are truly worth, who you are, and what you do. Not the shoes or the shorts.’ Mom reassured and encouraged me, and she was right…Sometimes we get confused and fail to understand what is truly important.”
Jennifer Munoz
